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[2026-10-05] · src M. Cadeddu, N. Cargioli, F. Dordei, L. Ferro, C. Giunti, M. Pitzalis, "A possible solution to the gallium anomaly moving beyond the leptonic wave function factorization", arXiv:2512.20560; Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 131805 (2026), doi:10.1103/5pvf-mcr1
The roughly 20% deficit in νe capture on 71Ga seen in the GALLEX, SAGE and BEST source experiments (51Cr and 37Ar), now above 5σ, is reduced to near agreement by a recalculation of the capture cross section. The authors drop the standard factorization of the leptonic wave functions, which rests on detailed balance, and treat the nucleus, neutrino and electron together, with Gamow-Teller transition densities constrained to reproduce the precisely measured 71Ge half-life. The resulting cross section is about 20% lower than the prior estimate, close to the observed rate. The 20% figure is from the journal's news summary, not the paper's tables.
If it holds, the main motivation for a ~eV sterile neutrino at short baseline from the gallium sector largely goes away, and the explanation is nuclear and atomic theory rather than a new particle. This is a theory-side correction, not a new measurement: it rests on the Gamow-Teller densities being right, and the 71Ge half-life constrains them only indirectly. An independent check (the factorization test in 71Ge electron capture, arXiv:2608.00120, is a start) matters before treating the anomaly as closed.
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[2026-10-05] · src —
Piano takes today: three days since it was last assigned, the longest gap of
the three instruments, and alto played yesterday. The exercise is
minor_ii_v_i from twelve-keys, in F♯ minor — G♯ half-diminished, C♯
altered, F♯ minor — chosen because the last piano key was B and F♯ is the
one that reads awkwardly. This is the progressions family, which has not
come up since the voicings and line-building work.
5 minutes: F♯ natural minor and then melodic minor, two octaves, hands together, quarter = 72, mp. Listen for the thumb crossing evenly, with no bump on the way under.
The ii–V–i in F♯ minor with the exercise's voicings, both hands, all three chords per bar, two beats each. Success criterion: three consecutive choruses at quarter = 80 with no hesitation at the G♯ø to C♯alt change, and the voice leading moving by step.
Play the progression as a phrase, not three chords: lean the C♯ altered chord toward the F♯ minor and let the tonic arrive soft and unhurried. Shape one four-bar loop so the dominant is the loudest point and the resolution sits underneath it.
Block of 30–40 minutes is fine at the piano. Stop when the C♯ altered change starts to be guessed rather than heard, or the wrists tighten; repeats after that rehearse the mistakes.
[2026-10-05] · src —
hearWynton Kelly — Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise · Tidal · Spotify
A minor-key tune built on the minor ii–V–i cycle, which is today's exercise at work. Listen to how Kelly's right hand lands on the tonic lightly after each dominant: the resolution is understated, and the swing comes from that lightness rather than from the chords themselves. Notice where the dominant gets its weight, and copy that.
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[2026-10-05] · src Supreme Court of the United States, Nos. 26-426 and 26A406, Department of Homeland Security v. D.V.D., unsigned order of Sept. 29, 2026 (as reported by SCOTUSblog; the order text itself was not opened)
In an unsigned order on September 29, the Supreme Court granted the government's application for a stay in DHS v. D.V.D. and set the case for oral argument on December 9. The stay suspends a district-court ruling by Judge Brian Murphy that required DHS to give a noncitizen written notice of a third country, meaning one not named in the removal order, and a meaningful opportunity to contest removal there. Murphy's ruling also required DHS to assess torture claims against a "reasonable" fear standard rather than "more likely than not." Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson would have denied the stay. SCOTUSblog reports they gave no written explanation; ABC News quotes a line from Justice Sotomayor, so check the order text on whether a written dissent exists.
Outlets agree on the facts of the order. The disagreement is over interpretation, and mostly in headline framing: "major victory" for the administration (IBTimes) against "for now" (UPI). The order says nothing that supports either reading beyond the interim relief itself.
The Court has not ruled on whether third-country removals without these procedures are lawful or constitutional. That is the question for December
The stay is interim relief, not a holding on the merits.
From September 29, DHS may again carry out third-country removals without the written-notice and challenge procedures Murphy's ruling required, and the lower standard for torture claims no longer applies. This lasts until the Court decides the case, which cannot happen before the December 9 argument. A noncitizen facing removal to a country not named in their order has, in the meantime, no court-ordered notice or hearing on that destination.
[2026-10-05] · src U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Employment Situation, September 2026 (released Oct. 2, 2026)
BLS reports that nonfarm payroll employment rose by 29,000 in September and the unemployment rate was 4.2 percent, with 7.1 million unemployed. BLS describes both as little changed. Consensus forecasts cited by CNBC and others were about 90,000, but a forecast is not BLS data. The release revised July down by 31,000, from +21,000 to -10,000, and August down by 29,000, from +162,000 to +133,000. Average hourly earnings rose 0.1 percent on the month to $37.81 and 3.0 percent over twelve months. The unemployment rate has stayed between 4.1 and 4.3 percent since March. By industry, health care added 17,000 jobs, construction 11,000 and manufacturing 9,000, while financial activities lost 7,000. Household employment rose 406,000 and the participation rate rose 0.2 point to 61.8 percent.
One month of payroll data from the establishment survey carries sampling error, and later revisions have moved recent months materially. Both of the prior two months were revised down in this release.
The effect is on inputs, not on anyone's legal obligations. Anything indexed to or triggered by the unemployment rate sees a 4.2 percent reading for September, and the July figure is now negative. The next release is for October, due in early November.
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[2026-10-05] · src Typst release notes, 0.15.0 (2026-06-15) and 0.15.1 (2026-07-17)
Typst 0.15.0 (2026-06-15) improves the layout of under/over constructions such
as underbrace, brings math spacing closer to TeX's, stretches glyphs relative
to the base character instead of a scaled copy, and exports equations in HTML
output as MathML rather than leaving them as images or plain text. The same
release adds variable-font support (axes set automatically from weight and
style, with explicit variation control), lets one PDF target several compatible
standards at once, and moves a footnote's link inside its superscript, which
tidies both tagged PDF and HTML. 0.15.1 (2026-07-17) is a fix release: it
repairs the regular weight of New Computer Modern Math, which still carried the
old calligraphic letterforms, corrects vertical misalignment of op elements,
and fixes alignment points in matched delimiters.
For a physicist the consequence is the HTML route, not the PDF one. A document
with equations that must also exist as a web page used to be a LaTeX job, via
a converter, because Typst's HTML output had nowhere good to put the math.
Automatic MathML removes that reason for one class of document — notes and
posts with modest equations. What it does not settle is fidelity: the op and
delimiter-alignment fixes landing in 0.15.1 say the math layout was still
moving a month after 0.15.0, so check any underbrace-heavy or
delimiter-matched derivation against the 0.15.1 output before trusting it. Pin
0.15.1, not 0.15.0.
[2026-10-05] · src Typst 0.15.0 release notes (under/over layout); Typst math reference
Take the line from a harmonic-oscillator ground-state energy:
=E0 = underbrace(1/2 planck.reduce omega, "zero-point") + underbrace(n planck.reduce omega, "excitation") |_(n0)
Set it twice: in LaTeX with \underbrace{\tfrac12\hbar\omega}_{\text{zero-point}}
and the same for the second term, and in Typst 0.15.1 with the form above.
Compile each and put the two outputs side by side at the same type size.
Success criterion, all checkable on the page: (1) each brace spans exactly its
term, with no overhang beyond the glyph edges by more than about half a thin
space; (2) the two labels sit at the same distance below their braces, so their
baselines are level across the two terms; (3) the brace-to-label gap is
visibly the same in LaTeX and Typst, or you can state in points how it
differs. If the labels sit at different heights in either system, that is the
known weakness of \underbrace with terms of different depth, and the fix is
\vphantom in LaTeX or a box with fixed height in Typst — apply it and
re-measure.
The technique that transfers is checking an annotated equation by its alignment lines rather than by eye: labels level, braces flush with their terms. The next paper has dozens of annotated derivations, and this is the check you will run on each. It is also the cheapest test of whether 0.15's under/over rework changed anything for the documents you write, which is the question the release notes cannot answer for you.